A Preliminary Analysis of Movement Times and Subjective Evaluations for a Visually-Controlled Foot-Tapping Task on Touch Pad Device

This study investigated the effects of foot-side, sex, and index of difficulty (ID) on lateral and visually controlled foot-movement time with a reciprocal foot-tapping task on touch pad device in sitting posture. Perceived difficulty level of subjects in different tapping conditions was also examined. Nineteen male and nineteen female right-foot dominant university students (aged 20 to 24) voluntarily participated in the experiment. The results indicated that sex and foot-side did not significantly affect foot-movement time, while the effect of ID was significant. It was also found that the ID reflects accurately the difficulty level perceived by subjects. The lowest ID (1 bit) was recognized as the easiest condition while the highest ID (4.5 bits) was the most difficult one. Possible applications of the results are useful for the design of foot controls for person-machine interfaces.

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